Cooking gas price drop, good for consumers

LPG cooking gas has become an essential household need and consumers should be happy with another price drop announced by the Fiji Commerce Commission (FCC) yesterday.

There have been more reductions in the price of LPG compared to the other fuels.

Consumers are currently paying better prices for LPG compared to previous years.

The new price of the 12kg cylinder to come into effect tomorrow is $40.87 compared to $48.92 in January 2014. This is a 16.4% decrease. There have been continuous drops in all LPG prices from July 2014 to the latest FCC price order. Consumers are now paying the lowest price of $40.87 for 12kg gas close to what they were paying back in November 2007 and May 2009 which was around $39 and $41 respectively. The new price of the smaller 4.5kg cylinder is $15.33 and is now $3.02 cheaper than in January 2014. LPG 4.5kg also had the highest price in 2014 since this version of the cooking gas cylinder was introduced in the market.

Meanwhile, the biggest decrease ever recorded for LPG prices were in August 2012 from $54 a cylinder to $45.31 when FCC placed LPG on price control. Earlier in 2010, the Council had made a submission highlighting big discrepancies between domestic gas prices and the international price. The Council also highlighted that there were only two companies controlling the Fiji market. FCC after considering the Council’s submission and undertaking a review decided to bring LPG under price control. Price control was introduced in August 2012 and immediately gas prices dropped by 17% to 20%.